9373. Come up unto Jehovah. That this signifies conjunction with the Lord, is evident from the signification of “coming up,” as being to be raised toward interior things (see n. 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007), consequently also to be conjoined (n. 8760). That it denotes conjunction with the Lord, is because by “Jehovah” in the Word is meant the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315). A secret which also lies hidden in the internal sense of these words, is that the sons of Jacob, over whom Moses was the head, were not called and chosen; but they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be instituted among them (according to wh at has been said in n. 4290, 4293); and therefore it is here said, “and He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah,” as if not Jehovah, but another, had said that he should come up. For the same reason in what follows it is said that “the people should not go up” (verse 2); and that “Jehovah sent not His hand unto the sons of Israel who were set apart” (verse 11); and that “the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the sons of Israel” (verse 17); and lastly that Moses, being called the seventh day, “entered into the midst of the cloud.” For by “the cloud” is meant the Word in the letter (n. 5922, 6343, 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781); and with the sons of Jacob the Word was separated from its internal sense, because they were in external worship without internal, as can be clearly seen from the fact that now, as before, they said, “all the words which Jehovah hath spoken we will do” (verse 3); and yet scarcely forty days afterward they worshiped a golden calf instead of Jehovah; which shows that this was hidden in their hearts while they were saying with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. But nevertheless those who are meant by “the called and the chosen” are those who are in internal worship, and who from internal worship are in external; that is, those who are in love to and faith in the Lord, and from this in love toward the neighbor.

7188. 'For with a strong hand he will send them away' means that with all their strength and power they will flee from them. This is clear from the meaning of 'a strong hand' as all the strength and power (for the meaning of 'hand' as power, see 878, 3387, 4931, 5327, 5318, 6947, 7011); and from the meaning of 'sending them away' as fleeing from them. The implications of this are that when punishments deter those belonging to hell from carrying out evil they at length refrain from molestation; they wish to leave those they have been molesting and to flee. Yet because the one and only delight of their life consists in carrying out what is evil and molesting they are unable to refrain unless they summon up all their strength and power to remove themselves. For since that which is the delight of any person's life is at the centre of his love it is at the centre of his life, and he is carried away; it is irresistible unless the unpleasantness of punishment weighs more heavily with him than the delight of carrying out evil. This is the reason for the punishments that the evil suffer in the next life.